The WSOP Main Event: A Special Tournament with Special Stories

In the corridor outside of the Horseshoe Ballroom, James Baltazar was making the most of his break with his wife of 11 years Veronica.

"It's awesome," he told PokerNews. "There were two minutes left on the clock, and I turned around she was standing right there with food. It was awesome."

"I'm not getting ahead of myself, just playing the hands that are dealt to me"

Baltazar explained how his wife is leaving tomorrow, and will return on Tuesday to potentially pick her husband up. However, he's planning on sticking around a little longer.

"I'm not getting ahead of myself, just playing the hands that are dealt to me. Playing moment by moment and doing what I can do."

Hughes Goes From Online to the WSOP

Texas Mike

Poker groups often attend the WSOP dressed in a uniform or matching shirts, and bright pink ones emblazoned with "RSDP" caught our eye.

"We're a poker group that started during COVID," explained Stefan Mrozewski, a member of the group. "RSDP stands for 'Remote, Socially Distant Poker'. It was online, obviously, but it's just grown and grown.

"So after a while, we decided 'Hey, we're good enough after all this practice to compete in the Main Event'. So every year we split our year up into two seasons, and every half season we compete for a Main Event seat."

This year's winner? Eric Hughes, who also played two years ago and is seated in the field today.

"Two years ago he didn't succeed as well as we'd hoped," said Mrozewksi. "But this year we're here to support him."